'Staring at the Sky' - Interview with TV weatherman Paul Hudson

I used to go to school with him off the telly...’ that is a common statement made by many of us at some point, and, in my formative years growing up in Keighley, I went to school with yep, you’ve guessed it ‘him off the telly’, BBC weather presenter on ‘Look North’-Paul Hudson.
I can vividly remember him as a child in the playground at Ingrow Junior School staring at the sky whilst I’d be performing ‘My Name is Tallulah’ on the school wall or getting my body parts lodged in the school railings. Yes, Paul was always the sensible and intelligent one, and boy, hasn’t the lad done well? It’s been 25 years since we said goodbye at the school gates, so I decided it was time for a good old ‘chinwag’ well, that’s if he remembers me…..

“Long time no see or speak and you didn’t have a Lancashire accent back then!” is his opening remark.
“I haven’t got a Lancashire accent!” I answer. “You bl**dy have!” he replies, arguing already, just like the good old days.
Paul and fellow weatherman Ian McCaskill have written a new book ‘Frozen Britain’, which is an eagerly awaited sequel to the best-selling ‘Frozen in Time’ (2006) which proved so popular that in response to continuing requests, ‘Frozen Britain’ has been published featuring now classic text that formed the core of ‘Frozen in Time’ packed full of legendary stories, in turn amusing, inspiring, astonishing and downright weird!
“The reason why we’ve done it is because the last three winters have been so extraordinary. The main reason for writing the book in 2006 was, it’s pretty ironic, but we hadn’t had a proper cold and snowy winter for so long, we thought there might be merit in bringing a book out, a nostalgic book, explaining how winters used to be and then low and behold the following year we had a bad winter and it’s never stopped since.
“It’s almost as if someone’s looking down saying ‘right we’re going make you look like an idiot’. We decided to republish it and update it, there’s stuff from last winter and a chapter on why it might be that we’ve suddenly seemed to have switched from mild winters.
He goes onto say “In the last chapter, there’s quite a thrust of thinking that it’s not related to global warming and it’s more to do with the activity of the sun disrupting planet patterns on earth. On the one hand it’s something we’ve known for a long time that the solar cycle can influence our weather patterns, but it’s also something that has been forgotten. Now we’ve got all these very powerful super computers and the old fashioned things seem to have gone out of favour and the idea that the solar cycle could affect our weather patterns has been forgotten. It’s now come back into ‘vogue’ and the only reason is because it sounds as though it’s the only plausible explanation as to why, for example; December (2010) was the second coldest for 250 years.” he goes onto explain “The conclusion is that the sun and solar activity, has been very similar to what we had in the early 1800s and that was called the Dalton Minimum, a period of low solar activity, named after the English meteorologist John Dalton. Solar activity was very weak, unusually weak for a long period of time and there was a series of very cold winters in the early 1800s. The interesting thing is that if the sun continues to behave like it did in the early 1800s; the winters like we’ve just had could become the norm. It may be that for the next couple of decades, putting global warming aside, we get more cold winters and less mild winters.”
Between you and me I’m not terribly au fait when it comes to understanding the weather, but for Paul who graduated from Newcastle University with a first in geophysics and planetary physics, it’s his ‘mother tongue.’ After drawing breath, he continues, “It’s very complicated and speaking to you now about the solar cycle, I’m conscious that it’s in one ear and out of the other, because it’s a little bit complicated. On my blog, if I simplify it too much, I get anoraks saying you’re ‘dumming it down’, then if I write it as a scientist I get people saying you’re just trying to be a clever dick, I can’t win.” he laughs.
In his latest book Paul recalls the winter of discontent 1978-79, “When we went to Bronte Middle School, we were there during that winter, I remember playtime it snowed all the time, do you remember being sent home from school?” he asks.
Stifling a giggle, I reply, “Yes, many a time, but only because we used to run the thermometer under the cold tap when the teacher wasn’t looking, in the distant hope that we would secure an early finish.”
Paul is happily married to Nicola with two young daughters and I was curious to see if he had predicted the weather on their special day.
“That was one of my biggest fears when I got married, that if it rained I’d never hear the end of it. On average the best weather of the year is the last two weeks in July so we got married on the 20th July and it was a really nice day.” he laughs.
“How often do you get it wrong Paul?” I ask. “Never,” is his prompt reply. “sometimes, it’s a real pain, the atmosphere goes in cycles and it’s either really quite easy to predict or it’s a real pain, you can go two to three weeks of it behaving itself, then you can go two to three weeks and the systems are so chaotic.”
I was intrigued to hear his thoughts on the British obsession with the weather - “Well, because it’s so very changeable, the types of weather we get. There’s no other place like it in the world. Every day it can be so different. If you look at the observations in Skipton and over that way, there was only one dry day in the whole of December and when you’re getting 30 out of 31 days with some measurable rain, it can be a depressing climate over the Pennines.”
Paul no longer lives in Keighley, but resides in an idyllic village on the outskirts of Leeds. He has a successful career and to top it all he also holds the title of the Mayor of Wetwang. Now, for those of you who are not familiar with Wetwang, it’s on the Yorkshire Wolds in between Bridlington and Stamford Bridge, he’s been the Mayor there for over five years. A couple of years ago The Daily Mail ran an article on him, he goes onto say, “They were having a bit of a dig because I had Wetwang on the TV weather map and they’d twisted it and put ‘BBC Scandal Weatherman puts his Own Village on the Map’, but it was alright, we do have fun, and I get to judge the Scarecrow Festival once a year.”
Sounds like the set of Trumpton, “Oh it is,” he replies, “except it’s smaller! I was so flattered to be nominated as the Mayor, especially when Richard Whiteley had previously been their Mayor. When he died the village had a ballot for who they would like to precede him. I was nominated along with ‘Look North’ presenter Peter Levy, Dickie Bird and Carole Vorderman and I came out top! Still to this day I’m a bit embarrassed that I’m a Mayor following in the footsteps of someone as famous as Richard.”
His passion for the weather began at an early age, going back to our long days of youth, I vaguely remember Paul carrying some type of homemade scientific equipment around the playground, and it resembled a toy helicopter on a stick…what was that all about?
“Well, I had a weather station in my back garden and as a child I remember seeing a thunder storm with lightning grounding on Haworth Moor, that’s when I became interested in the weather. I still am a little obsessed,” he admits, “and at the time my mum worked at the Keighley News, so she pulled a few strings and I ended up doing a monthly article, about how wet the month had been etc. I took weather recordings from the ages of 8– 18 until I left to go university, it’s really sad isn’t it?” he exclaims.
So, now Paul, here’s the 64 million question, let me test your ‘weathery wisdom’, what weather can we expect this summer?
“I think that we’re getting back to a more normal weather pattern. The jet stream which controls our weather seems to be getting back in line to where it should be and if it stays like this I think we’ve a chance that this summer we’ll have better weather. I’m not saying there’ll be a heat wave, but I think it could be a better summer, something to look forward to.”
“Brilliant, is it too soon for me to get my shorts on then?” I ask, “Well I wouldn’t have thought it’s a bit too soon in the middle of January...” he says (laughing).
Unfortunately, our chat is ebbing to a close, and over the last 25 years the only thing that has changed is our topic of conversation, but in my mind I still see Paul in his little blue shorts staring at the sky.

Apology from former school pal Tommy Thompson (formerly know as Craig)
“Paul has never forgiven me for the endless dead arms I gave him at school, and for ‘wanging’ his bag up in that big old tree outside the 6th form block. Sorry Paul...”

Frozen Britain by Ian McCaskill and Paul Hudson on Our Very Worst Winters published by Great Northern Books, £12.99. ISBN: 9781905080984. To order a signed copy phone 01274 735056 or visit www.gnbooks.co.uk

Article from Northern Life issue 42 February/March 2012.
To order this issue go to the Northern Life online store.

The Ride of My Life - Interview with Bruce Jones

As Coronation Street’s loveable lout Les Battersby, actor Bruce Jones is no stranger to the highs and lows of life. But in a brand-new, bare-it-all book the Street star is the first to admit his personal life is a bigger soap opera than that of any fictional role he has played.
Bruce’s book ‘Les Battersby & Me’ reveals a roller-coaster ride through life that even the most imaginative scriptwriters would struggle to dream up. They include: The moment he stumbled upon one of the Yorkshire Ripper’s victims. Two years spent in hospital with a devastating illness aged 10. And most recently how he tried to end it all for him and his wife during a high-speed car crash.
Despite the high drama this laid-bare life story is not just a tale of woe; but an honest account of how Bruce has had to face his demons.
He also reveals his happy childhood growing up in Collyhurst, Manchester, his years working as a fire-fighter in the city, and the love of the family and friends who have brought him to the happier place he is today.
Here are some of the high and lows Bruce shared with Northern Life in his own words...

You may know me as Les Battersby – and I’m honoured to have been involved in the nation’s most best-loved TV show for so long. But this story isn’t about Les. It’s about a man who has seen things no-one should ever see; a man who has struggled to understand himself and come to terms with why he does the things he does.
The highs in my life include my two sons, my two daughters, mum, my wife Sandra, my aunts and uncles, my cousins, the acting awards, films and TV series.
I was born Ian Roy Jones on 24th January 1953, but took my grandfather’s Scottish nickname Bruce when I joined the actors’ union, because there was an Ian Jones already registered.
Growing up in Collyhurst – classed as one of the hard areas of Manchester at the time - I came into the world in a two-bedroomed flat, the eldest of six children to mum, Irene, a steam presser, and dad John, a steel fixer.
My mum has probably been the greatest influence on my life. We lost her in 2010 and I’m still coming to terms with it, she did so much for me.
My early childhood years were happy. We may not have had much but that didn’t stop us enjoying ourselves. Me and Bryn, my first brother to be born, would get sweets from my dad every Thursday, his pay-day, and Friday night was fish and chips night. Dad would normally be home around five or six o’clock for his tea after going for a couple of pints at the local. Like father, like son in my case.
We were a typical, hard-working, poor Collyhurst family, of which there were thousands in the same boat.
Our house on Rochdale Road was full of shops. Bernard Manning was my grandmother’s grocer. Yes, the Bernard Manning. It was actually his father’s shop but Bernard worked in it before he became a professional entertainer. Dad was doing quite well at work at the time and we had one of the few black and white televisions on our street.
I was an avid reader as a child. Other kids were into Dandy or Beano and maybe Roy of the Rovers but I would always prefer to read a book rather than a comic. I remember someone bought me Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift. I enjoyed it so much I read it over and over.
To outsiders, Collyhurst may have been rough, but to me it was always the place I lived – and this was a time when parents didn’t have to worry too much about where their kids were.
I love my sport and like every other boy wanted to play football for City or United. But aged ten I started getting severe pains in my legs, a hundred times worse than cramp, sometimes so bad I could hardly walk. The majority of the pain would come at night. Eventually it started to affect all of my body. Some nights I would scream the house down. I was diagnosed as suffering from rheumatic fever, caused by the cold and damp, and it was taking lives. The disease had no definite cure and I was sent to Booth Hall Hospital in Blackley where I lived and was schooled for two years.
Every visitor had to wear masks and gowns. No-one knew how the disease spread, I honestly thought I was going to die.
As some of the children on the ward gradually improved, seven of the nine of us there died. After my time in hospital I returned to school, but looking pale and different, I was badly bullied. Lunchtime or playtime I would be slapped, punched, kicked and spat on for ‘being ill’.
It was my granddad who taught me to fight back which I did. No-one picked on me again after that.
At 13 – and already expelled from one school for fighting – I ended up at Albert Memorial School where the head teacher told my parents that I was violent, would never change and that Borstal was my next resting place. Miss Brown was my English teacher. She told the head: ‘Give him to me for six weeks and I will give you a different boy back.’
I laughed and asked this broadly-built woman what she was going to do. ‘We’re doing Julius Caesar as the school play – and you are going to play him. You’re going to learn the script and I know you can do it.’
She taught me that if you portray Shakespeare you must do it in a certain way, that I must feel it, not just say the words. This wonderful woman was setting me on the path I wanted to be on. She put me through my exams and drama classes and it felt good. I went from being a thug who had gone off the rails to working hard at drama, winning awards for my English compositions and it was all down to the belief that one teacher showed in me. She really was my guardian angel.
The most dramatic, disturbing and emotionally catastrophic event of my life took place on the morning of October 10th, 1977.
I was gardening with a friend Jimmy, who had found out that an allotment had come available next to Southern Cemetery in Manchester.
We spent a good deal of the summer getting the allotment ready for the next growing season. We had planted cabbages, sprouts, potatoes and carrots. When autumn set in we decided to put a base in for a shed. One morning I was pushing my wheelbarrow over an area of rubble when I saw what looked like a tailor’s dummy. But as I got closer the stench was awful and I soon realised that it was what remained of a woman.
Her name was Jean Jordan. Her body was described by the police and the media as the most grotesque find of any of the Ripper’s murders and I can still see it today.
I was married to a lady called Sue at this time, we had two boys, but the gruesome discovery put added pressure on an already strained relationship and my next marriage would be my last – to Sandra who I met in 1979.
By 1982 I had custody of my two boys and Sandra had two girls of the same ages. We all lived in Failsworth in the northern part of Greater Manchester. We managed to get all the four children into the same school and my life was starting to look good again. We married at Oldham Register Office in late July 1984.
I tried my hand at a number of jobs, postman, fireman, bus driver – but nothing stuck. Acting was never far away from my thoughts, but providing for my family had always been a priority. Somewhere along the way I told Sandra that I loved acting and that’s all I wanted to do. We sat for hours in a car park one night and she said: ‘If that’s what you want to do you should do it.’
I moved the family to a lovely village called Marple in Stockport and joined the local amateur dramatic company at The Carver Theatre.
I learned a lot about stage technique and timing. I had two great teachers who became very close friends – June and Tony Broughton. They’ve both appeared in Coronation Street in various roles over the years – and I enjoyed many stage roles under their direction.
I decided I needed an agent and make an appointment to see Patrick Nyland and his brother Tony, who have been my agents now for 22 years.
I did a TV commercial that turned out to be directed by Ken Loach and led to a role in his gritty movie Raining Stones. My role as Bob brought me a European Actor of the Year award and the film clinched a win at the Cannes Film Festival.
The film led to two TV series of Roughnecks, an episode of Heartbeat, the movie the Full Monty, Bob’s Weekend, Hillsborough and TwentyFourSeven. Basically I wasn’t out of work as an actor from starting out in 1993 until I finished in Coronation Street in 2007.
During 1995 and 96 I was hardly off the television which was great money-wise, but it was starting to take its toll on my home and family life.
I got this huge guilt feeling about not having been at home enough but I was working, doing what people today call ‘living the dream’.
Everything was coming together for me after years of grafting on boilers, fitting pipes, putting out fires and all the other jobs I did to keep money coming in. I was now doing what I had always wanted.
When you are being paid a lot of money, probably more than you deserve, you think about how much firemen, nurses and craftsmen are paid and you do feel guilty. I’m still a working class kid at heart. I’ve never forgotten my roots and I never will. I still feel more comfortable talking with people from my own background. It’s also why I feel at home in a normal, working-man’s pub, where I can talk with real people.
Mine and Sandra’s rows got worse and I moved into a flat for 12 months until I landed the job of a lifetime in Coronation Street when we decided to get back together.
Through my agent Patrick I signed up for six months on Coronation Street as one of a new family ‘The Battersbys’ with my favourite actress of all time Vicky Entwistle and our screen daughters Jane Danson and Georgia Taylor.
We knew the kind of reaction we were going to get from the viewers. You can’t just bring a loud-mouthed, layabout and mildly lawless family into the street and expect everyone to accept it straight away – especially if we were offending some of the best-loved names in the Street.
We were hated. Our fan mail was hate mail!
I was abused in pubs by gangs of lads, screamed at in the streets, and the girls were getting shouted at in supermarkets and shops.
Some people can’t differentiate between the character you are playing and the fact you are an actor.
As a group off-screen, Vicky, Jane, Georgia and I all became very protective of each other. We didn’t just have a great on-screen presence; we were strong for each other off-screen too.
After many happy years on Coronation Street I was written out of the show in 2007 after I was supposed to have made racist rants and revealed future storylines to two undercover News of the World reporters. The full story of how I was stitched up by these two men is covered in step-by-step detail in my book. I guess unless it happens to you, it is hard to believe that set-ups like this really happen. I was suspended from Coronation Street for allegedly giving away storylines. Steve Frost suspended me while they ‘checked it out’. I told him that what he’d read in the newspapers was a load of bull, but deep down I knew he didn’t want me back. He said: ‘You’re not sacked, but I want you to leave.’
There was no chance of staying. I was out. I hope Les returns to the Street one day – and I hope it is me that plays him again.
I had been finding life increasingly tough being out of work. I was depressed and had been drinking heavily for a while. Depression and drinking is not a very healthy mix.
There were arguments at home, things would calm down for months then something would cause me to blow again. The arguments were my fault.
On Friday August 28th, 2009, Sandra picked me up from a pub where I had been drinking all afternoon. We were heading off for a weekend away in North Wales. I was being argumentative. I then grabbed the steering wheel causing Sandra to zigzag on the A55, while I was vowing to end it all for both of us.
Sandra has saved my life so many times over the years. I didn’t want to write about this in my book but I vowed not to miss anything out. Sandra took me to court over this incident and I thank her because she did it to help me. Desperate times called for desperate measures.
I was ensconced in a rehabilitation centre before and after my sentence was passed on April 27th, 2010. I was sentenced to eight months imprisonment, suspended for 18. I was ordered to undertake 100 hours of community service, fined and disqualified from driving for 12 months.
Rehab was no holiday. This was a serious case of trying to straighten out my life so that nothing like the incident on the A55 ever happened again.
I’d admitted during the trial at Mold Crown court that I had an alcohol problem. The Daily Mirror paid for my stay, in return for a story from me about my drinking problem. There is absolutely no way I could have ever have afforded to go to rehab without the support of the newspaper as money was now very tight compared to the £120,000 a year I earned on Coronation Street.
During my time in rehab the biggest problems I had were depression, loneliness and the recurring fear of losing Sandra.
I knew that when I got out I would probably have to live on my own for a good long while and that kept bringing me down.
Losing my mum had also been a major body blow. All of a sudden, in the space of a few months, my mum had died and Sandra was no longer with me.
The group discussions in rehab made me think back over the years about how my drinking had caused pain and suffering to my wife and family. I was amazed that Sandra had stayed with me as long as she had over the years.
The people there were from all walks of life; social workers, teachers, white collar management, housewives, chefs and top businessmen. Hearing their life stories brought it home how easy it was for us all to lose our way.
Rehab worked for me because I was so far away from everybody, from my friends, relatives and the life I had been leading. It allowed me time to gather my thoughts, to get my head sorted; and to write my diary documenting all my frustrations and my emotions.
While Sandra and I might not be together at present we are still in contact nearly every day. She comes to see me and still cares for me even if she isn’t here with me day to day. Even after all that has happened between us, she is there and I am so grateful for her support.
In a way playing Les Battersby has been both a blessing and a curse. I will still always see it as more of a blessing; but it was not just the thing that built me up, it also saw me lose nearly everything and mess up big style. I say nearly because thanks to Sandra, my family and friends I’m getting things back on track. I’m back on stage – and screen – and have a film and children’s book coming up.
I’m nowhere near getting back on a proper even keel with my finances but I am working. And I’m still doing the job I always wanted to do. So am I Les Battersby to you; or am I Bruce Jones?
I hope that you have seen the real me, with all my flaws and my dreams here.

Bruce's book 'Les Battersby & Me' is available from Great Northern books www.gnbooks.co.uk rrp £16.99

Article from Northern Life issue 42 February/March 2012.
To order this issue go to the Northern Life online store.

'The Voice' - Connie Fisher

Five months ago, ‘Sound Of Music’ star Connie Fisher announced she would never play Maria again after a vocal condition left her unable to hit the high notes. But the 28-year-old is back on stage after undergoing career-saving throat surgery. I had the good fortune to catch up with Connie when she recently headed up North.

In 2006 Connie, from Pembrokeshire, shot from obscurity working at a call centre and was propelled onto the West End stage when she won the lead role as Maria Von Trapp in ‘The Sound of Music’.
It was then she discovered she was born with a rare vocal condition, congenital sulcus vocalis, which meant she had holes in each of her vocal cords.
“This is the first opportunity I’ve had to sing in a year since the operation, she says, “after the treatment I had to keep quiet for a month which was very difficult for me.
“Being back on stage feels natural but it is frustrating because I would love to reach high the notes that I used to hit. But I’m happy to accept my new voice which is definitely a character voice - it’s changed from a high soprano to an alto and it’s quite an exciting sound.”
So imagine how wonderful it was to watch Connie back on form again when she sang in public for the first time in preparation for playing the lead role Ruth Sherwood in Leonard Bernstein’s ‘Wonderful Town’ at The Lowry recently. She exudes star quality slightly reminiscent of a young Doris Day. Connie and her on-stage sister Eileen, played by Lucy van Gasse, sang a seemingly effortless duet ‘Ohio’. It was pure magic, pure Broadway, pure class.
Connie plays an aspiring writer who arrives in New York with her beautiful younger sister Eileen. The indomitable pair meet an array of colourful characters along the way, creating chaos at every turn in their search for romance, success and a free meal from Walgreen’s deli.
Connie says: “Wonderful Town, despite it being 50s based, it still feels very ‘now’. It has a modern twist; I’m really excited about it. It’s fundamentally a love story and that’s something that everyone can relate to, and when I get the man, it makes it even better! “I’ve always enjoyed playing comedy and the part of Ruth is such a great comic role. As if that opportunity wasn’t great enough, I also get to sing with the Hallé and work at The Lowry. Awesome!”
Bob Baker (played by Michael Xavier), plays the role of an editor in the show, asks his love interest Ruth “Why are you here?” to which she replies “Because I think I have talent.” Connie goes on to say: “It’s just like life, if you think you have talent and ambition, then what’s stopping you? You’ve just got to go and get what you want.”
The role of Ruth was previously played by Maureen Lipman on Broadway. Maureen is Connie’s comedy idol, and she recalls a time when she had dinner with Maureen and her daughter Amy after a performance at the Palladium of ‘The Sound of Music.’
“Amy was the absolute double of me,” Connie says, “it was strange, she looked just like my twin, and hopefully they’ll both come along to see me at The Lowry.”
“To be chosen to play Ruth, is fate. It’s such a great opportunity where I get to play a comedic role whilst following in the footsteps of Maureen. Comparing the roles of Maria and Ruth vocally they are completely different. This is a great opportunity for me to show people my new voice. At one point in my life I had two options - to give up or to carry on. But you can’t kill the passion for being on stage. I just love it.”
‘Wonderful Town’ first premiered in New York in 1953 where it won five Tony Awards including Best Musical. The 2003 revival also won further Tony and Drama Desk Awards. The show was last performed in London’s West End in 1986.
‘Wonderful Town’ will be directed by Braham Murray, who said: “To direct a great musical with a fabulous orchestra and world renowned conductor is a dream come true. There is only one word to describe it – wonderful!”
So what does the future hold for Connie? “Well, I’ve just finished playing a casualty in the TV series ‘Casualty’ and I also went on ‘Total Wipeout’ and if you want to see me fall off those big red balls, both the programmes will be aired in March.
“Tonight I have to be back in Wales to film a new TV series ‘Connie’s Wales.’ It sounds like I own it,” she laughs. Welsh-born Connie travels the length and breadth of Wales talking to the Welsh folk while discovering new places of interest, “then I’ll be returning to Manchester for a few weeks of intensive rehearsals. I can’t wait...” and neither can we Connie!

Bernstein’s ‘Wonderful Town’ which opens at The Lowry, Salford Quays, on Saturday 31 March. Due to unprecedented demand, the show will now play an extra week at The Lowry and run until Saturday 21 April, prior to a UK tour.

For details of Wonderful Town at The Lowry: Information & Box Office 0843 2086005, After The Lowry run, the show tours the UK for 11 weeks. www.wonderfultown.co.uk

Photographs by Mark Davis

Article from Northern Life issue 42 February/March 2012.
To order this issue go to the Northern Life online store.

From Corrie's Cobbles to Panto Wobbles

Ex-Street star Chris Quentin on secret fears he will ‘crack up’ during the panto season.

Actor Chris Quentin is used to putting the hours in. As a nine-year-old he had a 6am milk round, at 14 he stacked supermarket shelves, at 16 he trained as a gymnast - and at 17 he worked 10 hour shifts at a shipyard.
A year later the actor, who would go on to play Brian Tilsley in Coronation Street, grabbed the Guinness Book of Records title for disco dancing non-stop for five days.
Still super-fit at 54 there is one thing that Chris admits leaves him exhausted... a season in panto.
“I’m not complaining,” he says. “It is brilliant fun and very well paid - but it is 12 hour rehearsal days followed by two months of a rigorous work eat and sleep routine.
The actor is embarking on his 15th panto – this year playing ‘Ramsbottom’, slavish sidekick to the wicked queen in the PMA Productions of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Appearing in Oswaldtwistle, Cannock and Colne, the cast have chosen to share a cottage together in Burnley, which will be a first for Chris who usually stays in a hotel or B & B, when away from his home in London.
“We will be doing two; three-hour shows a day. You can’t eat a lot before or after the first performance. So what I will do every night is eat out, go home, get into bed and watch a movie. I stay up chilling out for as long as I can, because the minute I’m awake in the morning, my mind is straight back on the panto.
“I like to think I’m fit; I run, go to the gym, and watch what I eat. But panto definitely takes it out of you.”
Chris had only met a handful of the cast at the time of our interview, but there was already a good rapport developing between them all - and in particular Keith De Winter who plays ‘Dame Duddles’.
“The Dame is hilarious,” adds Chris – he’s already warned me his mission is to make me corpse on stage.”
Corpsing is a theatrical term, for when one actor unintentionally breaks out of character and into hysterical laughter.
And despite 36 years of theatre and television experience; Chris knows it is likely to happen. “Keith only has to pull this face and I’m gone! He told me it is going to be far too easy to make me crack up.”
Sitting in the audience cheering on her dad will be the actor’s six-year-old daughter Sydney, who lives in Derbyshire with her mum, and Chris’s girlfriend, Alison Slater.
The youngster, named after Chris’s late father, is one of three daughters, Rosie, 18, – a horse groom living in Sydney, Australia, and Lexi, 21, who lives with her mum; American talk show host Leeza Gibbons, in the U.S.
Adds Chris: “Sydney will watch the show around 20 times I imagine – like all kids – she absolutely loves panto.”
The star was only four years older than his youngest daughter when he decided on his own career in showbiz, while watching ‘Junior Showtime’ on the telly.
His aspirations as a schoolboy, growing up in Middlesbrough with mum Sue, dad Sid and three siblings were far different from the other boys in class.
“I was heavily into gymnastics and disco dancing. I’d train five nights a week after school before go on to the clubs to dance.
“I remember at school our headmaster, Mr Bulmer, used to let us have discos at lunchtime when it was raining. But of course the lads messed around pushing and shoving each other and we were eventually told the disco would be cancelled if we didn’t behave.
“Mr Bulmer told us, ‘If you really want this disco I want you to prove it to me. Girls, stand up if you want this disco’, so all the girls stood up.
“Then he said, ‘boys stand up if you want this disco to continue’. I shot up from my seat, looked around, and realised I was the only boy standing.”
Chris’s professional performing career began at the age of 17, when on a tea break at ship builders Swan Hunter, Chris spotted an article in the local paper asking for ‘male go go dancers’.
“It turned out to be a publicity stunt,”
he says. “When me and my mate Albert turned up to audition, the club owner was stunned. He told us he didn’t expect anyone to apply. “The boss called Look North and with half an hour the TV cameras were filming us dancing around. We got a residency at the club and loads of bookings across the region. So from earning £8 week, we were earning £25 a night each!”
From there came auditions in London to appear in a restaurant cabaret show, a string of West End productions and his audition for Coronation Street – only his third TV audition - which saw Chris playing Gail Platt’s first husband for more than a decade.
These days Chris is one of the UK’s top club promoters, as well as appearing in a string of television dramas.
For now though, the actor is thrilled to be in panto. And remember – if he cracks up laughing on stage – you can blame the Dame!

For more information about the panto click www.pmaproductions.co.uk/theatre

From Time Lord to Law Lord

Actor Peter Davison on the ‘Very Peculiar Practice’ of Acting

In his 40 years as an actor, Peter Davison has found himself in some strange situations.
As Dr Who, he obliterated aliens, battled a black hole the size of Belgium, and fixed the universe with a sonic screwdriver.
In All Creatures Great and Small, he became intimately familiar with the insides of a cow and his tools of the trade were a thermometer and latex gloves.
But the star’s most memorable moment was as the ‘other doctor’, Dr Stephen Daker, in the BAFTA-winning BBC comedy ‘A Very Peculiar Practice’ – newly released on DVD.
“The scene involved me examining the breasts of an actress I hadn’t met before,” says Peter.
“That was embarrassing enough, but, for reasons of authenticity, the BBC hired a very glamorous, real-life doctor to show me exactly how to perform the procedure. We’d all barely had chance to say hello when the filming began.
“It was the most excruciating scene of my life. I was pretty flustered and my acting skills failed me that day.”
A Very Peculiar Practice, first screened in the 1980s, took a satirical swipe at university life amid government cuts.
Its relevance now has not gone unnoticed by today’s university population, who have catapulted the show back to cult status.
Adds Peter: “There have always been a huge number of viewers, both the young, YouTube generation, and first-time watchers who wanted it released again. The first and second series were both repeated a couple of years ago and it stuck in peoples’ minds.
“It is very relevant to today’s climate – the second series particularly - as all forms of educational institutions are under threat.”
“The people who loved it then were those at university. Twenty five years on I think that anyone who is at university now will love it too. It is a satire on university life, and that is pretty timeless.”
Written by Andrew Davies, the first series looks at general university life, while the second series is more political, taking a deeper dig at the Thatcherite concept of big business running universities.
It is surprising to learn that Peter’s most mortifying experience wasn’t during his time in playing Yorkshire vet Tristan Farnon in All Creatures Great and Small.
This was, after all, a role which once involved him sticking his hand up the backside of a cow to release the beast’s stomach gas. But Peter, who played beer-loving ladies’ man and younger brother of sensible Siegfried, took it all in his stride. “I have great memories of filming up in Yorkshire. The only downside was the weather. Some days on set I was so cold I would stick my fingers in a cup of tea rather than drink it, just to keep warm.”
Set in the fictional village of Darrowby, which was actually Askrigg, the comedy drama followed the adventures of a veterinary practice during the years leading up to WW2.
Off-screen boozing was done in the Black Bull in Leyburn where cast and crew would unwind after a day’s filming. When Peter found himself back in Yorkshire 10 years after the show closed he couldn’t resist popping in for a pint.
“I hadn’t been there for a decade – yet when I walked in people just nodded as if I’d never been away!”
Before working in the Dales, the South London born actor expected a landscape of “grit and grime”. “I admit it,” he adds, “that’s what a lad from the softie South was told about the North. Hands up, I was wrong – and the scenery in Wensleydale was totally unexpected and spectacular.”
From animals to aliens, Peter remains most famous for playing the fifth Time Lord in Doctor Who.
The actor racked up 70 episodes as the legendary Time Lord, between 1981 and 1984.
A recent poll, of more than 6,700 fans, names an episode of the actor’s ‘The Caves of Androzani’ as their all-time top scene.
And, bizarrely, his daughter, Georgia Moffatt, is engaged to David Tennant, who played the 10th Doctor Who, in the most watched sci-fi series of all time.
The two Time Lords appeared together in ‘Time Crash’, a special episode written for Children in Need in 2007.
“David is a genuinely nice guy,” says Peter, “and I’m delighted Georgia has found happiness because she hasn’t always had an easy life,” he adds referring to his marriage break-up with her mum, US actress Sandra Dickinson.
Now married to actress Elizabeth Morton, by whom he has two sons, Louis, 12 and Joel, 10, Peter admits that the fact his daughter has a Doctor Who for a dad - and for a fiancé - is unusual.
“It can be odd when David comes round for Sunday lunch and we all sit at the table — me, an ex-Doctor Who, with my wife, and David, another Doctor Who, with my daughter.”
With news that Dr Who is being made into a movie, Peter says he wouldn’t rule out a return to the big-screen adaptation. “Although I imagine it would be difficult to explain how the previous Time Lords had aged,” he laughs.
Now Peter is back on screen for a new series of Law and Order UK, playing CPS boss Henry Sharpe. “The character is intent on seeing justice done but he’s a good boss nonetheless. He is very inclusive and listens to what his team says to him. He is not aggressive but, if he has to, he’ll tell them off and put them on the right track. There is no dark side to him. I think he is an amiable man. He has made a career of this and thinks he is doing a good job. He can be tough when it is needed and he has to be pretty tough to be in that position”.
Of all the roles Peter has played, he would choose his latest and a real-life job. “If I had to follow one of these professions, I would probably be a barrister as it is the closest thing to being an actor with the theatricality of it, all that performing in court.”

Article from Northern Life issue 41 December/January 2012.
To order this issue go to the Northern Life online store.

Be Lost For A Day-Interview with Chris Chittell

On, Saturday 24th September, one of Emmerdale’s most loved stars, Eric Pollard actor Chris Chittell, set off on a mammoth mission when he embarked on a 200-mile Scottish wilderness journey from Fort William to remote Cape Wrath, the most north-westerly point of the UK mainland. He had undertaken a strenuous 12-month training programme including several marathons, running the Yorkshire Three Peaks and training in the Dales with full 50lb kit! Chris, along with his friend Peter and two other ‘special forces’ mates, attempted to complete the task in just seven days to raise vital funds for Leukaemia and Lymphoma research. But unfortunately even the best laid plans can go wrong...

Chris told us: My pals were mad enough to accompany me on a tremendous journey testing us at every level. There were bogs, rivers, trails, no trails, clean sweet air and silence...

Karen: I believe the walk didn’t go as planned. What happened exactly?
Chris: It has been done in 10 days and we wanted to do it in a week. My mate from the Special Forces said it can be done and we were doing well for the first two days; we did 75 km. You’ve got 50lbs on your back and the rain was ridiculous! Unfortunately, we read the map wrong and we had to cross a rather ferocious river. It was horrendous. It was only through sheer anger on my part that we tried a different way because I wanted to get to the bothy.

What’s a bothy?
It’s a haven, a sort of last resort for people to get out of the storm if they don’t have a tent or a bivi bag.

Did you manage to cross the river?
Well we realised we were 10k out of our way in fog water that was up to our armpits, so we just needed to get going. We couldn’t camp out, we either had to cross the river or go back to the bothy from the previous night. I was so mad I steamed ahead and saw the possibility of crossing the river, so I made my way two thirds of the way across and I could see that it was dangerous, but I saw a groove in the rock and as my feet were swept underneath me I grabbed it with my hand and was holding on like grim death.
One of the reasons you do it is because of the buzz. You have to be pushed to the limit. My reasoning for choosing the Cape Wrath Trail is because hardly anyone has ever done it and it really is a huge challenge. It was twice the challenge because of the weather.

I know what I’d have done, laughed.
I would definitely have laughed as well. So I just followed the grooves with both hands and found my way back. We then decided we’d go towards the bothy. Meanwhile, one of my fellow walkers tried to jump over a bog, we heard a crack and the next minute he was in the bog, we began to drag him out, but he was in severe pain, we didn’t know why, so we were laughing until we realised that he had ripped a tendon in his calf.

Ouch!
We were all so determined to return to the bothy so we could raise the alarm. I got back to the bothy first to raise the alarm but couldn’t get a signal. I lit a fire, so at least it was warm for when he eventually returned over an hour later.

Did he drag himself back on his elbows?
No (laughs), he had more than 50lbs on his back. After we’d eaten, got dry and changed, it was decided that at first light I would go out and try and find somebody. I knew I had to get across the loch, and I found this footbridge that had two cables running across. You were at a tilt the whole time and you’re splashing your way through, so halfway through the loch I could hear this noise and to my relief there was a couple of deer stalkers, I told them I had a man down, and though he wasn’t dying he couldn’t go any further.
He said there was a phone about 40 miles away! Thankfully, they went to raise the alarm and returned three hours later to say that the coastguard was going to rescue us in a helicopter from the shore line. I got back to the bothy, told them and we set off to the water’s edge when we got to the water we could hear a chopper. I took a camera with me but I didn’t dare get it out of the bag to see this wonderful spectacle as it might look as if we were taking the mick. It was ironic because I’d helped with funds for the search and rescue and there they were.

What’s the landscape like?
You’re in between mountains; I took my binoculars out on the odd occasion, wasting time trying to find a deer. Then there’s the rain, the streams and the rivers and the smell... it was just incredible. There’s no water like it in the world. It’s absolutely pure. My mate from the Special Forces was saying that you’ve got to have the water purifying tablets and I said “I’ve never had purifying tablets in my life. Get some of that down you ‘cos you’ve never had such pure water!” I mean, after about four hours he was doing the same as me, just filling his water bottle from the stream. It’s such an arduous journey, otherwise everybody and their mother would go.

You mentioned earlier about carry 50lbs on your back, does that include your food?
Yes, you’re carrying everything including first aid. (Laughs) You’ve got to laugh because everything is wet and one of the guys I went with ended up taking out spray deodorants, shaving cream and a razor. I didn’t even take a razor! I just took a small tube of toothpaste and a toothbrush and that was it.

With the current recession, do you think people are less likely to give to charity?
Yeah, I think so. There seems to be more of a longer slog. When the Lottery came out we thought we could take our foot off the pedal a bit because the Lottery money would go around, but it doesn’t seem to do so. There has been no contribution from the Lottery Foundation or indeed any of the other smaller charities, which is a real shame. I think we all have to do our bit.

When are you going return to Cape Wrath?
We hope to finish the last week in March/first week of April. But yeah, it’s going to be finished. I’ve never felt so at home than I did up there.

Did your partner Lesley Dunlop (plays Brenda Walker in Emmerdale) not fancy joining you at all?
She would have loved to have been there but she’s got a dodgy hip at the moment and until that’s sorted out... but when we can we go walking quite a lot.

Rumour has it you have ran marathons even with injuries. How many marathons have you done?
I’ve done a few, 11 or 12 in London, 2 in New York. 3.55 hours was my best time.

That’s excellent; I couldn’t drive it in that time!
I’ve always been physical but I think 1992 was my first half-marathon. That’s when I started running for Leukaemia and Lymphoma. It’s a cause very close to my heart after meeting a woman who gave me a lot to think about. She was a very brave person.

What’s the Banana Army?
It’s a group of runners who are literally butchers, bakers and candlestick makers. They are from all walks of life; a car park attendant was one of the originals. Tim Lohas who organises all the marathons/half-marathons and 10k’s is an advertising executive for TV Times, and he got TV Times to sponsor the Banana Army.

Our columnist Richard Moore (Jarvis from Emmerdale) is a Fellow Banana member...
Yes, he’s been running for them for Donkey’s years! He’s a tremendous force. Burnley should be very proud to have him as an ambassador.

Would your character Eric Pollard ever consider being a member of the Banana Army?
No he wouldn’t. He’d probably get some mug to do it for him!

Are you similar to him at all, any attributes you share?
Of course, he’s exactly the same as me - I just try to hide it! It’s not work, I just go out and play myself!

How’s he going to feel when he finds out he’s going to be a step-grandfather?
There are two things which stick in my craw. The first is the fact that he’s going to be a grandfather and he’s far too young! He’s conforming, which he’s never done before.

How did you get the role?
A mate of mine down in Devon was one of the Emmerdale Farm directors and he said there’s a part going to run over. There’s 12 episodes, so it’s up to you what you do with it. They obviously had low standards and employed me. So it went on from there.

Emmerdale has come under some criticism regarding the introduction of the younger cast members. Do you think that’s the case?
I think there was a period not that long ago where it did seem as though there were more youth-orientated storylines but they were so well portrayed by the younger actors that I felt if that was the case they were doing a bloody good job.

There are some stunners on Emmerdale nowadays.
There are, but equally so I think both the males and females are complementing each other. I’m also glad our producer realises that age complements age. Otherwise, we’ll never learn.

If you could play any other character in Emmerdale who would you pick?
I would choose Betty, because she’s brilliant.

What’s your favourite Northern walk?
I love the Pennines Moors because it’s on my doorstep. I do love mountains with a huge passion especially the clean fresh air. Basically, I always say go for a walk and ‘be lost for a day’.

If you would like to sponsor Chris when he attempts Cape Wrath next year, go to www.justgiving.com/chrischittellemmerdale

Article from Northern Life issue 41 December/January 2012.
To order this issue go to the Northern Life online store.

Steele Appeal - Interview with Tommy Steele

Do this man’s talents know no bounds? He’s a performer, writer, sculptor, painter, actor, singer, songwriter, composer, conductor, and he has achieved success in every field including the charm department.
There is no doubting that Tommy is a legend with a career that has included hit songs such as ‘Rock With the Cavemen’, ‘Singin’ the Blues’, ‘A Handful of Songs’, ‘Little White Bull’, ‘What a Mouth’ and ‘Flash, Bang, Wallop’ hit films which include ‘Half A Sixpence’, ‘The Happiest Millionaire’ and ‘Finian’s Rainbow’, as well as award-winning stage musicals such as ‘Hans Andersen’, ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ and ‘Scrooge’. On the 5th November 2011, Tommy celebrated his 55th year on stage, and his up-coming 2011/2012 tour will mark Tommy’s sixth time playing the title role in the all-singing all-dancing musical extravaganza ‘Scrooge’.
He has played the role of Scrooge five times previously and in his own words there’s no difference with the new production apart from this time in his own words ‘he’s six years younger.’ “Ebenezer Scrooge is the song and dance man’s King Lear,” said Tommy. “You can only play the part at a certain age, and I’m old enough to play Scrooge and his father! The good thing about Scrooge is that he starts off as a grumpy old git and in the last ten minutes he ends up as Tommy Steele! I just love playing Scrooge; it’s the best part I’ve ever played in the greatest musical ever.”
I managed to catch up with Tommy when the weather was blowing a gale in Plymouth. He jokes that he can see the Armada on the horizon and Drake is waiting for him to join him. Tommy still has a love of the sea since joining the Navy at the tender age of 15. It was whilst serving in the Navy when he met a chap called Dick Campion, a waiter on the Mauretania. “He taught me to play the guitar when we were at sea together.”
Tommy left his life on the ocean waves in 1956 when he was discovered in the 2i’s Coffee Bar on Old Compton Road in Soho playing ‘Blue Suede Shoes’, a song he had heard in New York.
His initial inspiration was from musical legend Buddy Holly who he saw on stage in Norfolk, “That was a real ‘Road to Damascus’ moment. I knew then I could do what he was doing. I could already play the guitar and I loved performing.”
The 2i’s Coffee Bar was a regular haunt of Tommy’s when he wasn’t at sea and that night a publicity agent named John Kennedy had been invited to see The Vipers perform. What he found instead was a young skinny kid with an unruly mop of hair and a guitar almost as big as he was. A kid who would become known throughout the world as merely… ‘Tommy’. With only two weeks until Tommy reported back to the Merchant Navy, John had to work fast. He invited Hugh Mendl of Decca Records to hear Tommy sing. Tommy performed ‘Rock with the Caveman’ a song he had written himself. Mr. Mendl arranged a recording session for the next day and asked Tommy to have an original song ready for the flip side. He went home that night and wrote ‘Rock around Town’, and cut the record on September 24, 1956, and he never returned to his life on an ocean wave.
“The first Christmas that I spent away from home was when I was 15 and in the Navy and what was terrible about it was that I was in Southampton and I couldn’t go home to London because I was on watch and I remember it was about seven o’clock at night and this fellow came up to me and said ‘The Officer of the Watch has gone home, we’re the only two on this bloody big ship, no-one will miss us if we go.’ I got on the back of his motorbike and we went home and I spent Christmas with the family shaking like a leaf because I thought I would have to walk the plank when I returned to the ship. I just couldn’t relax. When I got back the next morning we hadn’t even been missed so someone could have nicked this great big ship.”
Tommy recalls: “As a child during the war we always had great Christmases. I was one of seven and my mum would always manage to find us a walnut or a tangerine and it was like having something really magical into the house. Christmas hasn’t changed over the years, as long as there are children, could you imagine a Christmas without kids?
“I’ll be spending Christmas in the North in Salford. The Lowry is a great theatre and I’m really looking forward to performing there. The last time I was up in that neck of the woods was in the mid seventies and I went off to meet the great painter LS Lowry. I had performed with another 50 dancers in a dance piece called ‘Same Size Boots’ where we brought a Lowry painting to life. I had a video of the piece and in those days videos were a rarity and I had to carry it up on the train in a massive suitcase. I met him and showed him the dance, there he was sat in front of the TV, he watched it and asked I asked him afterwards ‘Well, what did you think?’ he replied ‘Oh, it’s wonderful’. I said ‘Would you like to see it again?’ ‘Oh yes,’ he replied, ‘would they mind?’ I love his work. His work was just like him, very gentle with a great love of the North. As I was leaving afterwards, he said ‘Do you think they’ll remember me?’”
Tommy is no stranger to the art world. He has had a painting displayed at the Royal Academy and one of his major sculptures is Eleanor Rigby, which he created in 1982 and gave to the city of Liverpool as a tribute to the Beatles. He also did a life-size sculpture of Charlie Chaplin to be delivered to himself at the theatre. The label read ‘Tommy Steele, Leicester Square’. “The lorry driver just dropped it off – in Leicester Square! The police arrested the statue and I had to go and sign for it at the police station. I swear it’s the truth,” he laughs.
How does he think the current recession will affect theatre going? “I believe that when there’s austerity around, especially in Great Britain, people have to find an oasis of light. There has to be something out there that takes them away from that worry. Sometimes, it may be a drink at the pub and sometimes it’s going to the pictures or to the theatre. You’ve got to have somewhere to go, where you can forget it all and if we’re (the performers) not there what’s there? A good night out at the theatre can inspire you, the next day you can chat to your mates about it and it can take two or three days to get over it! Isn’t it wonderful? Audiences are exactly the same. People cry everywhere, people laugh everywhere and all applaud.
His stage career has had a very special association with the London Palladium and he has been the top-billed star there more often than any other artist in the theatre’s 79-year history. Despite performing at there over 1,700 times Tommy admits to still getting stage fright.
“The worst thing is standing in the wings waiting to go on. If someone came up to me whilst I was waiting in the wings and said there was a bomb scare and we’re not performing tonight I would be as pleased as punch! As soon as I get on stage and the spotlight hits me I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. I’m definitely not someone who is negative, I’m the opposite. Always chase your dreams. It’s not an easy business but it’s a wonderful business to be in.
“I remember an old tightrope walker who’d just lost half his family in an accident they had on a high wire without a net. He’d lost two sons and a daughter and he was sitting in his caravan and they were doing this television interview about his life. He was a Czechoslovakian tight rope walker and he was in his seventies. I remember the announcer saying to him ‘What makes you keep doing it?’ and he said ‘To live is to be on the wire and the rest ...is waiting.’ And that’s really what show business is, you just love it so much you keep waiting to do it again. I’ll never retire, just die, that’s when I’ll stop.”
Bring the family and get ready to embark on a magical theatrical experience unlike any other in this international smash-hit musical sensation Scrooge!

Article from Northern Life issue 41 December/January 2012.
To order this issue go to the Northern Life online store.

Jamming with Jimmy Cricket

Throughout the eighties, I remember as a child being glued to the TV watching the great entertainers of the day, and one that made an impression on me was comedy icon Jimmy Cricket. My grandma and I would roar with laughter when he would tell his jokes, standing there in his oversized tuxedo and infamous wellies. So when I got the chance to pay a visit to the man himself, how could I refuse? Especially when the promise of a bacon sandwich was on offer. With my husband Chris we ventured off to Rochdale. Chris is an accomplished saxophonist and good all-round musician, and I just knew they’d hit it off, and I wasn’t wrong. As we were to discover, there’s more...

Laughter bounces off every surface. He’s excitable, hilarious and lovable. Now I’m making him sound like an over-excited puppy, but what really shines through is his warmth and his ability to listen, a rare commodity not often found in successful entertainers.
Jimmy isn’t just a stand-up comedian. He has entered the world of composing and scriptwriting, and has just finished his latest musical production ‘Magennis VC’. I was soon to realise that there was more to Jimmy that meets the eye.
For Jimmy, fame came calling in the early 80s after performing in ‘Search for a Star’. He was originally spotted at Butlin’s and went on to miserably fail ‘Opportunity Knocks and ‘New Faces’. “In hindsight, that was the best thing that ever happened to me,” he says. “I wasn’t ready. In those days there was more of a moral code than there is in today’s talent TV shows. Back then, you really learnt your trade and weren’t launched straight into the limelight, because for many that can be overwhelming.”
Jimmy was later to find fame performing in ‘Night of a Hundred Stars’ and ‘The Good Old Days.’ It was then that his career started to take off.
His favourite comedian, he reveals, is Donny. Jimmy talks fondly of Donny; I just smile and politely nod, thinking he means Donny Osmond, only to follow up with the question “So, Jim you’re a pal of the Osmonds are you?” He stares back blankly. “You know,” I continue “Donny?” to which he replies “Sorry Karen, I mean ‘Doddy’ as in Ken.” Argh! The two are firm friends, and sitting on the fireplace is a gift from ‘Doddy’ himself a fitting tribute to Jim, a pair of wellies casted complete with the inscription ‘To Jimmy, Happiness Always. Ken.’
The first musical Jimmy wrote was called ‘Give Me One Good Season’ about a struggling lower division football team. He wrote the lyrics for it and found a wonderful piano teacher called Katherine Binns who gave him the melodies. It was when Katherine moved to America that Jimmy decided to have a go himself, by humming the tune into a tape cassette and sending it off to a fellow musician to write the notes.
His latest venture ‘Magennis the Musical’ was inspired by the story of James Magennis, the last man from Northern Ireland to be awarded the Victoria Cross. Jimmy was inspired to write a musical about this amazing man, after reading the book ‘Magennis VC’ and is indebted to the author George Fleming. It was very much a family affair when he was joined by his daughter Jamie, a trained actress who played the role of Jimmy’s mother and wife.
After all these years, though, Jimmy still loves the sadly diminishing world of ‘Variety’ and despite his latest musical ventures, his first love lies in stand-up, a love which he has passed on to his daughter Katie. “She’s very funny,” he says. “I support her, but her comedy is different to mine. It’s not one-liners or traditional or punch lines, she does more observational stuff. We must try and keep variety alive. I recently performed in Colne, but I had to go back to apologise!”
As the conversation returned to music, Jimmy jumped up and sat at his piano to play a jolly rendition of ‘Alouette.’
Chris’s dad Alec could play by ear, and when people would ask if he played by ear he would say “No, I use my hands!” Jimmy rocks with laughter at the corny joke.
It’s obvious Jimmy loves his music and more importantly loves to learn, finds playing therapeutic. His interest in learning the saxophone derived from his son Frank, who plays clarinet and has now entered the priesthood. Needing no persuasion from us, off Jimmy trots to retrieve his saxophones. Within a few minutes I have heard the theme tune from ‘Cagney and Lacey, followed by the ‘Pink Panther’ and after much talk about G Sharps and sax reeds I was lost.
Next came ‘Harlem Nocturne’ the theme tune from Philip Marlow, the radio detective – Jim then falls into character “I was on the trail on the case of the stolen nappies. It was a bum wrap!” Forever the entertainer!
Which led straight into his rendition of ‘Rock around the Clock’, ‘Miss Jones’, ‘Cruising down the River on a Sunday Afternoon’, ‘Tequila’, and rather aptly ‘Tea for Two’ which was interrupted by the smoke alarm. “Lunch must be ready!” laughs Jim.
Jimmy runs a regular jam night with a few of his pals and invites Chris along. “It’s a hobby really,” he explains, “but it also offers up and coming musicians the opportunity to perform and improve their playing skills.”
We invite him to come and perform at The Northern Life Centre, and gladly he obliges: “You’re class, Chris!” Live music and chat with Jimmy - is there no end to this family’s talents? So, readers, watch out for Jimmy’s gig here later this year when we’ve fixed a date!

This is Your Life
It was September 1987 when he was on his way to launch his latest new book, ‘Letters from My Mammy.’ As he turned up at the location, he was dropped off near a building site and ‘lo and behold’ who was there dressed like Bob the Builder? Good old Eamonn Andrews with the famous Red Book.
“I felt at that moment that I had given something back to the industry, which was lovely,” Jimmy recalls. “I was overcome, all the lovely people that came on; Jim Bowen, Mick Miller and Bob Todd with a few other comedians. They entered dressed in wellies and tuxedos. It was really beautiful. After the show everyone was mingling and my pal from Northern Ireland, Brendy O’Gorman, was there. Eamonn had been chatting to everyone, Brendy approached him, handed him a camera and got him to take a picture of me and Brendy. Most would have wanted a picture of Eamonn, but oh no, not Brendy. Eamonn obliged, that was the kind of man he was.
“Eamonn had such a genuine approach he was filled with inherent goodness, very revered and loved. My show was the last one he watched before he passed away and because of that I feel a spiritual bond to him, he made such a mark.
“Two of my brothers were on the show and unfortunately they have now both passed away. I remember my brother John talking to my wife just after ‘This is Your Life’ and he wondered if it had all happened too quickly, to which my wife replied ‘John, you’ve got to take opportunity when it’s there, because none of us know when our time is up.’
“And she’s right, very prophetic. If people are gracious enough to offer you an opportunity like that, then you take it!”
Talking about opportunity, it’s clear to see Jimmy practises what he preaches, as not only does his lovely wife May (whom he married in 1974 and affectionately refers to as Mrs Cricket) make a great bacon butty but she is also an accomplished singer with the voice of an angel. As for their four children, Dale, Frank, Jamie, Katie are simply a reflection of his approach to life; one actress, one priest, one politician and one stand-up comedian. It’s clear to see that in their success they’re simply a reflection of Jimmy, which just goes to show that he’s not as daft as looks!

And there’s more...

If you would like to buy the DVD and all three of Jimmy’s CDs for the bumper bundle price of £30 including post and packaging, please call Northern Life magazine on 01282 861982 or visit our online store.

Article from Northern Life issue 38 June July 2011. To order this issue go to the Northern Life online store.